Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature & Teaching English Language and Literature for Secondary Schools Bc. Tomáš Varga The Demythification of Martin Luther King, Jr. Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey A. Vanderziel, B.A. 2016 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgement I would like to thank Jeff Vanderziel for being such a wonderful and inspiring mentor. I am also grateful to Derrais A. Carter who gave me some invaluable advice on the topic, Tom Hanzálek who was always willing to help when needed, and my friends who made the studies all the merrier. Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents for their unwavering encouragement and love. Table of Content Chapter 1 - Introduction _____________________________________________________ 1 Chapter 2 - The Civil Rights Movement _________________________________________ 5 Chapter 3 - The Movement in the American Cinema ______________________________ 17 Chapter 4 - The Humanisation of King _________________________________________ 26 Chapter 5 - The Demythification of King _______________________________________ 41 Chapter 6 - Conclusion _____________________________________________________ 57 Works Cited and Consulted __________________________________________________ 59 English Resumé ___________________________________________________________ 62 Czech Resumé ____________________________________________________________ 63 Chapter 1 - Introduction But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome. Lyndon B. Johnson The quote comes from President Johnson’s speech he delivered to a joint session of United States Congress on March 15, 1965. The speech was a response to the violence that ensued after African Americans and their supporters attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on March 7 but were brutally stopped by the law enforcement units (the events are further dealt with in the next chapter). The march was a part of the ongoing campaign of Civil Rights groups, whose main goal was to eliminate the discrimination African Americans faced when they tried to register to vote. Even though Article 15, Section 1 of 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution states “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” some states, mostly in the Deep South, introduced measures such as literacy tests (the correctness of the answers was determined solely by the white 1 clerks), Poll Taxes (paying a special tax to be registered), and Vouchers (voters-to-be had to have an already registered voter vouch for them), which made it difficult (and sometimes even impossible) for African Americans to register. Therefore, the Civil Rights groups (especially King’s SCLC) pressured Johnson to change the law and put a stop to the discrimination on the state level. Hence, in the same speech, Johnson declares his plan to propose a new legislation which would improve the voter registrations for African Americans on all levels of elections: federal, state, and local (the bill became later known as Voting Rights Act of 1965). The introduction of the law was a major victory for the Civil Rights Movement at that time. However, the path to its formation was full of obstacles. As was hinted at above, the major event that set the wheels moving was the attempted march in Selma, Alabama. The march was just a culmination of the events that were taking place in Selma from the beginning of 1965 under SCLC-organised Selma Campaign. Its main goal was to pressure the politicians to change the discriminating laws, which prevented African Americans from registering to vote or made it at least difficult for them. The campaign was just one of many Civil Rights Movement activities, which were trying to improve the lives of African Americans. However, despite the significance of the Civil Rights Movement and its undisputable influence on the American society, it appears to lack notable coverage by the film industry. As the thesis will try to show, even such a notable, widely respected, and celebrated figure as Martin Luther King Jr. appears in a fairly small number of fictionalised accounts. The thesis’s ultimate goal is to manifest that Martin Luther King Jr.’s character in fictionalised accounts King (NBC miniseries production from 1978), Boycott (HBO production from 2001), and Selma (Paramount Pictures production from 2014) is demythified as opposed to the glorified, and haloed way his character has been portrayed in other productions. The following paragraphs 2 present the thesis’s structure together with the approach applied to the analysis of King’s depiction. First, the thesis will establish the time period to which the term “Civil Rights Movement” refers. Then it will briefly summarise the aspects and structure of the Movement, specifically concentrating on the Selma Campaign. The main idea is to demonstrate the importance of the Movement in the American history, thus suggesting that it should deserve a fair share in the number of film productions. The subsequent chapter, “The Civil Rights Movement in American Cinema” tries to illustrate what accounts inspired by the Movement have been made so far. Although the main focus of the thesis is on fictionalised accounts, this chapter also mentions documentaries. It is mainly because they form a sizeable group of on-screen visualisations of the Movement’s period. The chapter shows there are far more documentaries about the era than fictionalised accounts. The chapter does not analyse every account individually, but it splits them into four categories: school integration, notable figures of the Civil Rights Era, Movement involvement, and Mississippi events. By doing so, I try to show the typical topics covered by the documentaries, television productions, or feature films which depict the 1950s - 1960s period. At the same time, the chapter sets to indicate that the number of accounts featuring the leader of the Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr., is quite low. Out of all the fictionalised accounts, he is the main character in only three of them, namely King, Boycott and Selma. The following chapter then takes a closer look on the television productions King and Boycott. Its main purpose is to show the demythified aspects of the productions, but also to point out that the productions are not so popular. I present various opinions on why that might be: one of them is that the miniseries King came too soon after the 1960s events. There are also harsher opinions, for instance that the 3 production was considered too highbrow for people to watch. I also draw attention to the way King’s character has been glorified over the decades after his death. Right at the beginning of the chapter I present a poll, which shows how unfavourable King was in his time compared to his high popularity nowadays. All in all, the chapter deals with two out of three fictionalised accounts, where the viewers see King as the main character and it serves as a prequel to the last chapter “The Demythification of King.” This chapter focuses on the most recent production, Selma. The chapter’s main aim is to demonstrate how the director, Ava DuVernay managed to depict King as a human being, rather than a glorified, mythical persona. I will concentrate on three main scenes, which I feel are the most significant in his demythified depiction. The first is a scene where King picks up SNCC leader, John Lewis and they drive together around Selma. The second is a jail scene, consisting of two parts. The first part shows King in jail with his closest aid Ralph Abernathy, the second part portrays King talking to his wife Coretta after Malcolm X’s visit to Selma. Lastly, I will focus on a scene, where Coretta confronts King after listening to audiotapes which suggest King had an extramarital relationship. My claim is that all these scenes help to establish a far more realistic image of King than people are confronted with on daily basis. 4 Chapter 2 - The Civil Rights Movement With regard to the focus of the thesis, it is crucial to present the reader with some basic information about the African American Civil Rights Movement and its impact on society. The Civil Rights Movement is used as an umbrella term for a series of events which took place between 1954 and 1968. The Movement might still be considered active even nowadays because SCLC and NAACP still exist and are active in organising conferences and workshops. For the purposes of this thesis the term refers to the period between 1954 (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka) and 1968, the year of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. In general, the Movement is considered to have begun with the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (Romano xiv). Thurgood Marshall, Chief Counsel for the NAACP, who later became the first African American Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1967, challenged the school’s policy on segregation by presenting a series of comparative studies and analyses in which he showed that discrimination on the basis of colour had a negative impact on black children. First, he stated black children studied in far worse conditions than the white children. Second, Marshall presented a controversial study by Kenneth Clark, in which Clark had showed that black children considered themselves to be inferior or lower when compared to white children.